Your Rights

Salary History Disclosure

During your job search, someone may ask you for your salary history. This is a tough position to be in, especially if you are hoping for a significant pay increase over your last job. Revealing your salary history could compromise your position in pay negotiations. It’s important to respond in a way that maintains your negotiating position without hurting your chance at the job. For more information about disclosing your salary, read below.

Yes, in most states and cities, but this is changing. The level of restrictions varies from state to state. States and localities that have passed laws on salary history are listed here. All of these statutes prohibit screening job applicants based on their past and/or current pay information.

New Orleans, Louisiana:

Effective January 25, 2017, New Orleans now prohibits city agencies from asking for applicants’ salary histories.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

Effective January 30, 2017, Pittsburgh prohibits the city from asking about a job applicant’s salary history. It also forbids the city from relying on pay history in the employment process, unless the applicant volunteered the information.

Puerto Rico:

Effective March 8, 2017, Puerto Rico hiring managers may not ask a job applicant, or his or her current or former employer, about the applicant’s salary history. However, the applicant may voluntarily tell the employer that information. If the applicant does, or the employer has already offered to hire him or her, the employer may further ask about or confirm the person’s salary history. The Puerto Rico law also promotes pay transparency in the workplace by prohibiting employers from restricting applicants’ or employees’ questions or discussions about their pay information or the pay information of another employee with similar duties.

Oregon:

Effective October 6, 2017, Oregon prohibits hiring managers from screening job applicants based on their current or past pay. Additionally, it is prohibited to set an applicants’ pay based on their current or past compensation. This law does not apply to current employees who want to transfer to another position.

New York City:

Effective October 31, 2017, New York City will prohibit hiring managers from asking job applicants, their current or former employers about the applicants’ past salary. The ordinance will also prohibit employers from conducting public records searches to find the applicants’ pay history, as well as relying on any past pay data to determine the salary, benefits, and other compensation for applicants during the hiring process. The New York City ordinance allows discussions between the prospective employer and the applicant about expectations concerning desired compensation. The ordinance allows the applicant to voluntarily give the information about his or her past pay to the employer. If the applicant voluntarily tells the employer this information, the employer may verify it and consider it in determining the applicant’s salary, benefits, and other compensation. The New York City ordinance will not apply to current employees transferring to a new position.

Delaware:

Effective December 14, 2017, Delaware hiring managers will not be allowed to screen job applicants based on their pay histories, including by requiring their prior pay meet a minimum or maximum criteria, or find out the applicants’ pay history from their current or former employers. The law will not prohibit the employer from discussing and negotiating pay and expectations with the prospective employee if the individual’s past pay history remains confidential. The law will allow the employer to ask about and verify the job applicant’s past pay history, but only after the offer of employment stating the compensation terms has been accepted by the applicant.

California:

Effective January 1, 2018, California hiring managers will be prohibited from seeking (on their own or through third parties) and relying on job applicants’ past pay information as a factor to determine whether to give a person a job and payment terms of that job. The California law, unlike other laws, will also require employers, upon reasonable request, to provide the pay range for the applied-for position. In California, job applicants may voluntarily contribute information about their pay history. If the applicant gives this information, employers can weigh or rely on the information when determining compensation.

Massachusetts:

Effective July 1, 2018, Massachusetts hiring managers will not be allowed to require that a term of employment, that the applicant refrains from talking about his or her pay or the or the pay of others. The law will also prohibit employers from screening applicants based on their pay history, requiring applicants to disclose previous pay as a condition of employment or requiring that the applicant's former pay meets a certain minimum or maximum criteria. While Massachusetts will not allow the employer to seek the applicant’s pay history from the applicant or any of his or her current or former employers, the law does allow the applicant to voluntarily discuss his or her pay information.

San Francisco:

Effective July 1, 2018, San Francisco’s “Parity in Pay Ordinance” will prohibit hiring managers from asking about a job applicant’s salary history and prohibit hiring managers from relying on pay history information as a factor in determining whether to hire the employee. San Francisco employers will also be prohibited from releasing a current or former employee’s compensation information to his or her prospective employer unless that employee has given written authorization. As with some other laws, the applicant may voluntarily, and “without prompting,” offer this information themselves to the prospective employer. In that case, the employer may consider or verify the information. The ordinance allows the applicant his or her prospective employer to participate in pre-employment compensation negotiations.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

Philadelphia's “Fair Practices Ordinance: Protection Against Unlawful Discrimination” (effective date pending) will prohibit employers from asking about or requiring disclosure of a job applicant’s pay history. It will also prohibit employers from conditioning the offer of employment or consideration for an interview based on pay disclosure. The ordinance will also prohibit hiring managers from relying on the past compensation history that was received from applicant’s current or former employer when determining the applicant’s pay at any stage in the employment process. This includes during the negotiation or drafting of any employment contract unless the applicant “knowingly and willingly” tells his or her past pay history to the employer.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, many other states are considering this type of legislation. These states currently include Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.

No. Salary history is personal information that you may choose to withhold from your employer. However, while there is no legal obligation to disclose your previous salary, there is no way to be sure how a particular employer may react. Declining to disclose your previous salary could result in losing the job opportunity.

Many people (especially minorities and women) choose not to disclose their previous salary because it may limit how much the company offers them for a new job. If a person is underpaid in a previous job, disclosing their previous salary to a new potential employer will likely result in being underpaid in their new job as well.

Basing salaries on a person’s previous pay rate perpetuates the pay gap between men and women and minorities. As noted above, many states are moving towards banning salary history questions altogether.

5. The job description doesn't contain a salary range. Should I inquire about the salary range before applying for the job?"

Employers are urged to provide this information in job postings. Asking for a salary range upfront can avoid wasting the company’s time and yours and reminds a company that it is important to provide transparency of the fair market rate for the role that they are trying to fill.

A polite way to ask for salary range would be by saying:

“I want to be respectful of your time. Is there a specific salary range for this position?”

“I want to be respectful of your time. There is a specific salary range I’m looking for. Can we talk about that upfront?”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is the salary range for this role?”

Since it is still standard practice for many employers to not disclose a salary range up front, you may be met with resistance. There is no way to be sure of how a particular employer may react to this question. There is always a risk that it could result in losing the job opportunity. However, as more employers begin to realize the benefit of providing salary information up front, this will become less of a problem.

If it’s not a required field on an online form, or if it is a physical form, leave it blank. If it is a required field on an online form, enter $0 or $1. It will be clear to employers that you do not want to answer the question.

7. What can I do before my interview to help me prepare for this question?

Enter the interview with all the knowledge you can about the salary range for the position. Visit sites like Payscale.com, Glassdoor.com, Indeed.com, and Salary.com to get more information. The research will allow you to know in advance your desired salary range and allows you to be realistic in your expectations. You will also have a leg up in the interview if the employer seems to give a lower number than the fair market value for the position.

You can also ask for the compensation range of the position you applied for, before the interview process, during a phone screen, or e-mail exchange. Be prepared for this question to lead to being asked what your expectations are. You can respond by saying "The range sounds in line with my expectations."

No. You may be tempted to exaggerate during salary negotiations, but it would be in your best interest not to. Headhunters and human resources professionals are well versed in this area and can catch you in your lie. If you lie, you will lose credibility, lose the job you are applying for and damage your professional reputation.

If your potential employer asks many times, and none of the above answers are working for you, you can always decide to share your salary information. If you know your last job underpaid you from looking at your fair market value, don’t hesitate to bring that up to your potential employer.

11. Do employers have to report pay data to the public or any government agency?

To address some of the inequities in pay which leads to potential pay discrimination against women, racial, and ethnic minorities, a proposal for employers to include pay data on a report called the EEO-1 was finalized in 2016.

The EEO-1 is a form from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which employers with at least 100 employees and government contractors with at least 50 employees must fill out each year. In the form, employers are required to disclose the race-ethnicity, gender and job category of their employees.

The expanded EEO-1 form would require employers to categorize their employees by gender, race, type of work, and place them into one of twelve wage brackets. For example, if a company has 50 men of the same race, who do similar work for a similar amount of money, then they would be grouped together.

Although the EEO-1 is confidential and not accessible to the public, the information would be disclosed to government agencies responsible for monitoring workplace discrimination and allow companies to identify pay gaps to take internal corrective action.

However, on August 30, 2017, the White House Office of Management and Budget announced that the pay data reporting requirement is suspended indefinitely. It is now unclear whether this proposal will move forward or whether employers will be required to disclose pay data except as requested in a lawsuit or other pay dispute.

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